With the emergence of the use of technology in the courtrooms, the Chief Justice of Malaya have admitted that one major problem which has been bugging the Malaysian judicial system all these while – backlog of cases – has been effectively overridden. A number of factors were identified for contributing to this success, among others: fully utilising court working hours and the use of technology in the court system.
Following this, a number of jurisdictions have expressed their interest to learn from the Malaysian experience, including: Australia, South Korea, Singapore and etc.
CJ: Case disposal ways very effective
Wednesday August 11, 2010
(c) The StarPUTRAJAYA: Case disposal methods introduced by the Malaysian judiciary early last year are found to be extremely effective that many countries are keen to study it, said Chief Justice Tun Zaki Tun Azmi.
Among them were avoiding frivolous litigation, fully utilising court working hours, applying judiciously the practice of adjournments, ending court boycotts and adopting alternative dispute redress mechanisms, he said.
He added that the use of technology in the court system had also ensured speedy delivery of justice.
“I am proud to say that a number of Commonwealth countries as well as non-Common-wealth countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkey had come to study our methods of disposal, “ he said during an elevation ceremony of eight judicial commissioners to High Court judges here yesterday.
The eight are Datuk Abdul Rahman Sebli (Kota Kinabalu), Datuk Zaleha Yusof (Shah Alam), Datuk Halijah Abbas (Malacca), Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan (Kuala Lumpur), Kamardin Hashim (Johor Bahru), Yaacob Md Sam (Penang), Datin Zabariah Mohd Yusof (Kuala Lumpur) and K. Anantham (Kuala Lumpur).
Speaking to reporters later, Justice Zaki said countries interested to learn the Malaysian methods included Nigeria, Tan-zania, Australia, South Korea, Canada, Tanzania, Bangladesh, Brunei and Singapore.
He said he was invited to deliver a talk at the Asia Pacific Judicial Forum’s conference between Oct 25 and 28 in Beijing and another talk in Singapore from Oct 4 to 6 on ways to settle cases using technology.
Earlier in his speech, Justice Zaki said a judge from the Madras High Court in India, Justice K. Chandru managed to single-handedly dispose off 53,000 cases in the four years he held office which was an average of 1,300 cases a month.
Justice Zaki said one major cause for backlogs was postponements.
